文：冯博一

贺丹是地道的陕北人。从他的口述历史中，可以看到他从小在延安地区的学习、成长与打拼；1979年考入西安美术学院油画系后，留校任教至今；1995-2005年他又留学法国，成为旅居法国的职业艺术家。起初，我试图在他艺术创作中寻找中法文化影响的痕迹，因为我以为他在陕西生存的经历和旅居法国后的具体而微的身份处境，应该既与中国传统的、现实的文化有着血脉渊源，又与法国的异域文化存有诸多的关联之处，并在双重文化背景下的生活与创作，使他对两种或多种文化有一种特殊的敏感，或多或少地影响到他艺术创作观念、视觉语言的差异。但很遗憾，我没有找到！然而，经过一番对话、了解和考察，还有另外的情况需要思考。由于类似贺丹的这种文化游牧，在全球化趋势中与我们也是一种有限的距离。作为身处异国他乡的贺丹，居间于异域文化的特殊生存，以及他对自我文化身份的理解与表达，隐现了中国及其文化在遭遇所在地文化的困境。其中对自我文化身份的认知，都会与中国传统文化和所处时代的生存经验联系在一起，而要保持独特之处，就需从每一个人自己的人生体验出发，而不是从西方文明的体系出发。因此，贺丹的绘画艺术便不再具有纯个人化的方式，因为没有作为主体的个人体验，外在的一切也就不能构成意义。所以，当贺丹在法国困惑于“在法国写中国的事情，还有在法国画中国主题的画”时，他的导师雅克·班巴诺（Jacques Pimpaneau）先生告诉他：“不要跪着去看卢浮宫，不要像很多中国的画家一样来到法国就忘掉了自己的过去，你画的风格不要为了改变而改变，慢慢地你的思想和你的生活在发生变化，你的画也会跟着慢慢改变，它是自然而然的。” 这句话给贺丹了很大的启示和教育（见贺丹口述历史“时间之外的存在”）。或许这是一种将不同的经验置于不同意义之下的艺术实践，我以为这就不是简单地从故乡到异乡的漂泊与栖居的艺术，而是一直寻找到家园之后的艺术，那么探寻精神家园的途径同样会使艺术创作获得新的活力。由此，我对贺丹绘画艺术的理解，已经不是简单地二元对立 ，也就心中释然地另眼相待了。

1979年以后，随着改革开放的城市化进程，负载于乡镇中的记忆，也因此成为漂浮的、无所附着的剩余物。也正是在这一现代化变迁过程中，对文化记忆的想象和创作，逐渐的、也是越来越清晰地被放置与纳入到于中国艺术家个人记忆和切身的视域之中。其中，贺丹的绘画艺术等具有一定的代表性。从他的这些作品题材和图式沿承来看，60年代出生的人堪称是改革开放后市场化的最好见证人，城市的生活总是这茬人避不开的。然而也正因为是那个时代出生的人，他们身后的乡镇似乎也与生俱来。中国城乡差异与不均的特殊状况，构成了这样的经历是许多在城市生存的人在身份转换中的共有过程。作为一种经验资源的再利用，贺丹的艺术创作似乎与他的这种带有普遍性的成长经历和记忆一样，有着较清晰的“乡镇里的都市与都市里的乡镇”两条脉络。都市对他来说象是一个闯入者或陌生客，充满了诱惑与异样，远不如乡镇那样亲切、稔熟而醇厚。我们可以从他上世纪90年代初创作的《驴市》、《葬礼》、《刮黄风》、《进城》、《梦境》等作品中，看到的是土黄的背景和摇弋的笔触，一种乡镇式的人物群体形象，也更能娴熟、更为饱含深情地驾驭着乡镇的风土民情，捕捉那熟悉而富于魅力的视觉形态。并在乡镇里发现生命、发现人与人之间的故事，以及在爱憎交织的复杂情感里，沉醉于一片乡音的萦绕或乡民的粗犷之中。这种节奏下的都市里的村镇图景已不是象80年代末期中国许多油画家留恋乡村那么温馨了，更多的是在城市诱惑下的一种失落和无奈。也许这是贺丹作为60年代人记忆乡镇的情结之一种吧。

然而，一旦改革开放的现代化过程，将城市生活的喧嚣无法逃避地推向艺术家的视野，贺丹关注的更多是在都市角落里的乡镇式的群体关系，对于乡镇的倾情使原本老实的乡镇纪事变得乖张起来，如《狗熊》、《洪水》、《我们发现美洲》、《集体主义》等作品。现代都市只是远远的背景，作为一簇华而不实的诱惑，作为人们乡镇情感的两极中的负极——憎与厌倦情感的空洞的补偿与向往。都市联系着抽象概念中的社会进步与一种陌生的别样文明，这也是贺丹的创作过渡与交错阶段所面临的某种特殊的悖论。从这个意义上说，在他的这些作品中则开始了以都市为背景的视觉形象而呈现出来。因为久居西安和巴黎之后，现代都市作为一个崭新的、完整的系统身临其境地融入到他的生活之中，而开始以一位当代人的视觉触摸现代文明进程，同时也以一种新的别样目光注视着急剧变化的社会现实。尽管他延续了以往具象的油画语言方式，而这种表现性因素既得益于他早年从延安开始，一直跟随靳之林先生的潜移默化影响，也得益于他在西安美术学院的油画训练和多年在油画系的教学。从中可以看到他与现实主义艺术的血缘关系，还可以看出他在巴黎留学、栖居经历，而青睐于布鲁盖尔的艺术，则始终贯穿在贺丹的绘画创作之中。但同时他却以一种既疏离又参与的叙述语调，展示了都市中城镇的生存状态。城市已由背景转换到了前台，速度发展成狂躁与盲动，令人身不由己，高于此上的选择只在不可实现中的实现。至此，一种发自乡镇视点的关于城市的乌托邦破灭了。仍然是社会进步，但已无法回避进步中的无序。他站到了城市文明的对面，直接表现了陌生而诱人的城市碎片的裂痕处所形成的困惑、木讷、紧张，甚至一时满足的狂欢场景。作品要表现的主题思想也集中于反思中国现代都市的消费文化在这个时代的困境和荒诞性上。

尽管贺丹日常的状态是在繁忙教学工作与创作焦虑的交叉进行，但在画面上却是沉静和舒展的。贺丹创作的人物总是以人山人海的簇拥和虚置一个现实景观来给予来呈现的，这些繁复的排列构成了他画面的特征。其观念则来自于现代化的工业文明，即强调标准化、复数性，非个性化的脸谱和面具是现代社会生活的本质之一，而这种特征也是区分出古典情感和现代情感的界限。因为我们的现实生活秩序，也是不断地被整齐规划了，每一个生命的存在，都是一种机械的重复，犹如套在我们身上的社会角色，被浓缩在某种格式化之中。这种标准化、复数性的限制在贺丹的作品中得到了转化，甚至造成歪曲与干扰，诱发着布鲁盖尔式的幽默与荒诞的想象，而贺丹的表现更增加了中国式的成分。尽管贺丹的人物造像各有其生动的表情，甚至将自我的形象也忝列在群体里，构成了“我的周围就是你的现在”的一种混生状态。尤为值得关注的有二点，一是他在这样的画面背景中，总有一个或几个人物形象，而且都是侧影或背影在寻找着什么，如《发现一》、《发现二》等，你看不出他塑造的人物表情，也看不清他们在在干些什么，懵然不知却老是让周围的人注视着。初看这些人物仿佛与其所摄取的场景有着一种关联，仔细观察却发现他们与这些环境并不存在着叙事和情节的逻辑联系，具象的虚构或许是抵达现实的最好手段之一。二是在他所设定的场域内，如《绿地》、《跳水》、《大飞机》、《现实生活》、《我想象中的战斗》等作品，在现实中这样的场面是不可能发生的，有种不真实的存在和熟悉的陌生感，真实、含混与神秘之间的错位凸现了作品本身的荒诞性因素。这既与现实主义定义中“具体描写方式的客观性”有所偏离，也与所强调的“要从作品场面和情节中自然地体现出作者的思想倾向和爱憎情感”相悖，好像与新写实主义也不搭界。我最近去他的工作室看作品时，总让我想起意大利导演米开朗基罗·安东尼奥尼（Michelangelo Antonioni）的电影，特别是他1966年拍摄的《放大》。我不知道贺丹的创作是否受到了安东尼奥尼影片的影响，但我对他们作品之间的联想却不禁而生。也许是安东尼奥尼片中的角色经常游走于城市，同时见证了角色自身的无目的性，以及城市空间的苍凉。而贺丹作品所呈现的或者说他所青睐的题材也是对城市肌理的描绘，有时甚至人群在他作品的景致中，分不清他的主角是人造的空间还是那些莫名的人们。如同《放大》影片的剧情，无论把照片放多大，都难以捕捉事实的真相，而最后一幕更被视为影史经典：几位如哑剧中人，球场上拿着球拍挥动，却不见球！真相在哪儿里？安东尼奥尼的电影没有给出答案，这是他的玄妙之处。贺丹的作品也有着这样的魅惑：是中国的现代化生活令人变得陌生而疏离了？还是人的境遇本该如此地困扰？这是贺丹作品的悬念，也是关注贺丹艺术创作的人需要寻求的答案。

作为艺术家个人所表现的经验性存在，更多的时候常常体现出某种精神的还原，折射着艺术家的价值观和情感取向。在贺丹绘画创作的表述中，他从现实的角度出发，在现实性的时空中寻找历时性和共时性的记忆，以一种人山人海的集体性来测度现实的变化。其实，这也是一种记忆被不断唤醒后的表现，折射了这种文化记忆和现实对他后来人生的潜在规约。正因为如此，即使贺丹是专注于个人命运的书写，但在时代背景或人物命运的变迁上，总是会自觉或不自觉地嵌入某些大历史环境，以便能够通过个人的记忆来审视过往的集体记忆。如果暂时抛开记忆中那些纯粹的个人化成分，站在历史文化的共性层面来看，那种贯穿艺术家成长，具有时代共同特质的文化记忆对他的影响同样也是不可或缺的。

在我看来，判断一位艺术家作品的意义或价值在于其作品的表现是否与他自身的生存环境、成长经验和他个人的或集体的记忆有一个较为直接的联系；同时，这种联系是否与其当下的文化情境或文化生态有一个转化的对应点，以及由此反映出艺术家对现实的态度或立场。再深入分析下去，就涉及到艺术家创作中题材的选择，文化资源的利用，媒介的运用和话语方式等具体的细节内容。贺丹九十年代以来的绘画艺术创作，不再是某种文化的样本，而携带着丰富的个人记忆和细节，他是在借助历史环境来推衍个体的生命情状。但正因为这种创作不再刻意寻求表现对象的“文化”象征意味，而强调个体记忆的丰富和细腻，因此，其文化记忆也带有很强的情感因素和随意拼贴的成分。这种文化记忆表现为对已经消逝了的、仅仅留存于个人生命记忆之中的“归属”和“精神故乡”的想像形态。因此，在贺丹绘画作品中显露的意味是在中国传统和记忆即将消逝的时刻对文化的追认与命名，同时也是一种重构传统记忆和自我记忆的转化方式。现代化进程对我们这一代与其说是一个场景，不如说是一种隐喻的显现。熟悉的乡镇、熟悉的历史、熟悉的生活细节和个人的成长环境，作为珍贵的个体经验和地域文化的记忆，在文化全球化如稗草生长的时代里，有意无意地成为人们保有“本真”、抗拒“格式化”的重要资源，以及安全感的根柢。或许贺丹的创作是由中国目前特殊的历史处境决定的，也对应我们当下文化生态的某些属性。在这里，艺术家是一个城市的另类，他的敏感和他积淀的独特而奇异的经历，以及反思、批判、幽默方式等等都是值得关注的。贺丹个人的艺术的价值不仅在于用一种新的视觉观念和手段表现我们这一代的文化记忆，还在于为我们记录了精神的和情感的历史。

„The days of our wandering are far from over“ – some thought about He Dan’s art of painting 

Written by Feng Boyi

He Dan is a native of northern Shaanxi. From his own oral history, we can understand his student life, personal growth and the hardships of his career in the Yan'an city. After he graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts in 1979, he chose to stay at the same university as a teacher until now. From 1995 to 2005, he studied in France and continued to stay there while becoming a professional artist. At first, I tried to find traces of the influence of Chinese and French culture in his artistic works, because I thought that his experience of past life in Shaanxi and subsequently the specificities of his living circumstance in France should have caused a close relationship with traditional and present Chinese culture as well as many connections to the culture of France. The living and working wirhin the dual cultural backgrounds should hae made him have a special sensitivity towards the two cultures and  a multi-cultural understanding in general, which affects his artistic creation through different ideas and visual language. But unfortunately, I found no proof for my assumptions! However, after some dialogue, a deepening understanding and investigation, I concluded that there are other situations that need to be considered. Because of He Dans way of life as a  cultural nomad, living in the globalization context results in less of a  distance from us. As a foreigner  who lives in oversee, He Dan had to face  different challenges  to survive in a complete foreign culture. His understanding and expression of his own cultural identity had revealed a dilemma when he was encountering the new local culture in France. The cognition of himself-within the background of his specific cultural identity was strongly associated with a traditional Chinese culture according tot he living experience of the time. In order to maintain his uniqueness and personal as well as artistic integrity , it was necessary to start from his own individual life experience, and not from the Western cultural  system. Therefore, He Dan's painting art no longer could be read as the result of a purely personal way, because it was not just about a personal experience as a subject, without  meaning constituted by outside influences. So, when He Dan was confused in France about "writing Chinese in France, and painting Chinese-themed work in France," his mentor, Jacques Pimpaneau, told him: "Don't  look at the Louvre and become kneeling! Don't come to France as many other Chinese painters forgetting  your own past! The style of your paintings should not change for change´s sake. Slowly, your thoughts and your life will be changing. And so your paintings will  change as well. It will change slowly, it is natural." This input gave He Dan a great revelation and insparation (see He Dan's oral history "To be out of time"). Perhaps this gave way to an art practice embracing different experiences and layering them into different meanings. I think it is not simply about the art of wandering and dwelling from one´s hometown to a foreign land, but about a sort of an art being rooted in exploring one´s spirutual home. The path of remembering the homeland experiences would also bring new vitality to the artistic creation. Therefore, my understanding of He Dan's painting art does not not simply consist of a binary opposition, but also a different interpretation of the heart.

After 1979, with ist following urbanization process and the reform and opening of the state, the memory clinging to the time in the old townships had become a floating, unattached residue. It is also in this process of modernization that the imagination and creation of cultural memories are gradually and increasingly clearly placed and incorporated into the personal memory and personal vision of Chinese artists. Among them, He Dan's painting art has a certain representativeness. Looking at it from a subject matter and the schema of these works, people born in the 1960s can be regarded as the best witnesses of marketization after the reform and opening of state. The life of the city is always inevitable. However, it seems that the people born in this era are always accompanied by the memory of the towns and villages from the past behind them. The special situation of urban-rural differences with it´s massive  inequalities in China constitutes the experience of many people living in cities in a process of identity transformation. As a kind of reuse of experiencial resources, He Dan's artistic creation seems to have two clear content lines of “rual in urban and urban in rual” included in his universal growth experience and memory. The city is like an intruder or a stranger to him. It is full of temptation and strangeness. It is far less intimate, skilled and mellow than the township. We can see this expressed in the works of "Donkey market", "Funeral", "blowing the Yellow Wind", "Going to the City", "Fantasyland" and other works created in the early 1990s. An urban lifestyle image of a group of people, but also more adept, more affectionately driven by the customs of the towns and villages and capturing the familiar and fascinating visual form. In the towns and villages, I see life, life stories between people and in the complex emotions of love and envy, indulged in the hustle of a local voice or the rough ways of the villagers. The picture of the villages and towns in this rhythm is no longer as warm as depicted by many Chinese oil painters in the late 1980s. There is more of a loss and helplessness under the temptations of the city. Perhaps this is one kind of complex He Dan as a person born in 1960s is confronted with. 

Obviously, along with the reform and opening of the modernization process, the shackles of urban life could  not be evaded from the artist's vision, He Dan pays more attention to the group relationships similar to township-style in the corner of urban. The chronicles became arrogant when he started to express his passion to these themes more deeply, such as in  "The Bear", "The Flood", "We Found America", "Collectivism" and other works. The modern city only plays a role as a far background plate and as a form of spacious temptation as the negative pole of the charges of people’s emotions in townships. They are the compensation and yearning for the hollowness of jealousy and tired emotions. The city is connected with   the abstract concept of social progress and  strangeness and otherness of civilization. This is also a special paradox that He Dan faces in the transitional and staggered stages of his art creation. In this sense, the visual image of the city as background is presented in his art works. After living in Xi'an and Paris for a long time, the modern city as a new and complete system was immersively integrated into his life and began to touch his image of the modern civilization process with a contemporary human vision, but also with a new different look at the rapidly changing social reality. Although he continued to paint oil painting in traditional language, the kind of expressive factor he used benefited from his early years in Yan'an. His former mentor，Mr. Jin Zhilin, gave him important inputs, an imperceptible influence which he still followed. He also benefited from the practice and teaching at the department of oil painting of Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts for many years.  So we can see his very close relationship with realistic art and also his study in abroad and living experience in Paris. The  art of Breughel was always He Dan’s favorite european influence  in his art works. But at the same time, he showed the living conditions of the urban in a narrative model that showed both alienation and involvment. The influences of the city have  changed and brought it from background to the foreground. The speed of urban development let the city fall into arrogance and blindness which makes people hopeless and weak. This scenario can only be realized in the unrealizable. At this point, a preexisting  utopia concerning the city as seen from the perspective of townships was shattered. There is still social progress reached, but it is no longer able to avoid the disorder of progress. He Dan chose to take a stand opposing the urbanization progress and directly expressed the confusion, dullness, tension and even a seemingly satisfying carnival scene formed by the cracks out of an environment of strange and seductive urban debris. The theme expressed in this work also focused on reflecting on the dilemma and absurdity of the consumer culture of contemporary  Chinese urban people in this era.

Although He Dan's daily life happens at the intersection of teaching and the uncertainties of art creation, the latter reflected quiet a stretch on the picture. The characters created by He Dan are always present within  crowds of people and in a virtual landscape. These complicated arrangements constitute the characteristics of his paintings. The concept derives from modern industrial civilization, namely phenomenons it produces like stress on standardization, pluralism. Non-personalized or mask like faces or even masks mask are signs of an essence of modern social life and this feature also marks the boundary between classical and modern affection. Because  the functions  of our realistic life are constantly being neatly planned, the existence of daily life becomes a mechanical repetition and feels like a social role imposed on us, and in a weird  format. This standardization and limitation of plurality has been transformed in He Dan's works, and even caused distortion and interference, inducing a Bruegel-styled humor and absurd imagination and He Dan's performance has even increased the use of Chinese-style composition. Although He Dan's character images each have their own vivid expressions, and even though their self-image is listed in the group as well, which constitutes a mixed state of "I am surrounded by your present", there are two points that are particularly worthy of attention. First, there are always one or several characters and they are all looking for something in the background. This ist he case in such images, as "Discovery One" and "Discovery Two". People can't see the expressions of the characters he shaped and what they are doing neither, but the crowd isn´t aware of what has happened there and the artist always let´s the crowd stay around to watch. At first glance, these characters seem to have a connection with the scenes they populate.  People can see that each one does not have a logical connection with the narratives and plots in the painting. These figurative fictions may be one of the best means to reaching reality, when they are being looked at more closely. Secondly, in the field he set, with paintings such as "Greenland", "diving", "big plane", "real life", "fighting in my imagination", the scenes depicted are defintely impossible to see in real life. There is a predominant and unreal existence present and a familiar strangeness to be felt. The dislocation between truth and tambiguity or mystery highlights the absurd factors of the work itself. This is contrary to the "objectivity of the specific description method"chosen in the definition of realism, and it is also contrary to the emphasis put on "to reflect the author's ideological inclination and emotion of love towards the scene and plot of the work". So realism is not necessaryly bound to  these sences. When I recently went to his studio to see his works, they always reminded me of Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni’s films, especially his "Magnification" (1966). I don't know if He Dan's concept is influenced by Antonioni's film, but I can't stop thinking to associate their works. Perhaps the characters in Antonionis films often travel around the city and witness the purposelessness of their own character itself and the desolation of urban space around. Some of  He Dan's favorite subject matters in his work are depictions of urban space. Sometimes even though the crowd is in the scenery of his works, it is impossible to tell whether his protagonists are surrounded by  artificial space or are inexplicably strange  people themselves. Like in the story of the movie "enlarge Zoom"; no matter how large the picture, it’s difficult to capture the truth of the facts. And the last scene is regarded as a classic of film history: a few people like mimes, holding a racket on the court, but not seeing the ball! Where is the truth? Antonioni's film did not give an answer, this is his mystery. He Dan's works also own such charm: Is China's modern life strange and alienateing? Or why  is the situation of people supposed to be so troubled? This is the suspense of He Dan's works and it is also an answer to people who care about He Dan's artistic creations and feel the need to seek.

His work, as the artist's personal experience, more often reflects a certain spiritual restoration and speaks about his values and emotional orientation. In the expression of He Dan's paintings, he looks for diachronic and synchronic memories in mixed space-time from a realistic perspective and measures the changes of society with a collective consciousness. In fact, this is also a manifestation of memory being awakened and reflecting the potential status of this cultural memory and the realities of his recent life. Because of this, even if He Dan is devoted to the writing of a personal life history and fate in the change of the background of  time and  fate of the characters, he will always consciously or unconsciously embed some large historical environment so that he can examine the past through personal memory and collective memory. If we temporarily put aside the purely personal elements of memory and look from a perspective of commonality of history and culture, the influence of cultural memory that forms the common characteristics of the times throughout the artist's growth is also indispensable.

In my opinion, judging the meaning or value of an artist's work depends on whether the performance of his work has a direct connection with his own living environment, growth experience and his personal or collective memory. At the same time, this connection provides a corresponding point of transformation involving the current cultural situation or cultural ecology and thus reflects the artist's attitude or position towards reality. Further analysis will involve specific details such as the choice of subject matter in the artist's creation, such as the selection of cultural resources, the usage of media and the ways of discourse. He Dan's oil painting art creation since the 1990s is no longer just a sample of a certain culture, but carries a wealth of personal memories and its details. He is using the historical environment to derive from it his take on the individual's life. So this kind of creation no longer deliberately seeks the “cultural” symbolic meaning of the expressed object, but instead emphasizes on the richness and exquisiteness of individual memory. Its cultural memory also contains strong emotional factors and random collage components. This kind of cultural memory is expressed as an imaginary form of  “belonging” and “spiritual home” experiences that have disappeared and remain only in the memory of the individual's life. Therefore, what is revealed in He Dan's paintings are the recognition and naming of culture in a moment when Chinese tradition and memory are about to disappear. It is also a way of transforming traditional memory and self-memory. The modernization process is not so much a scenario for our generation but a metaphor. Familiar towns, familiar history, familiar life details and personal growth environment; as precious personal experiences and memories of regional culture, in the era of cultural globalization activities such as weeding, intentionally or unintentionally become people´s retaining ankers " truth " and important resources to resist "formatting" and maintain the roots of personal integirty and identity. Perhaps He Dan's creation is determined by China's current special historical situation and also corresponds to certain attributes of our current cultural ecology. Here, the artist is a stranger to the city. His sensitivity and unique and bizarre experience, as well as reflection, criticism, humor and so on, are all worthy of attention. The value of He Dan's personal art is not only about  expressing the cultural memory of our generation with a new visual concept and new means, but also to record our spiritual and emotional history for us.